The Nubra valley with its Bactrian camels and the sand dunes had been my fascination for a long time. In fact, my maternal grand father who had been trading with Yarqandis had been telling stories of his travels to my mother who in turn related these to me. I faintly recollect having seen some Yarqandi traders in the Kak Sarai near Safakadal where my maternal home is located.

There used to be Bactrian camels tied in the compound of the Sarai. Yarqandis had a typical dress, caps, and quite a few had golden covers on their teeth. I also recall seeing sacks full of dried apricots, kernels of the apricots, carpets, and many other things in our Daiwa Khana (Kashmiri distortion of Urdu Diwan Khana). My grand father had been many times to Ladakh and beyond. He is supposed to have been fluent in many languages including Ladakhi and Yarqandi. There were many more Yarqandis after the Chinese revolution as the elite from there had run away to save themselves from the Communists and had taken shelter in Kashmir. They came here as Kashmir was very close to them. Apart from trading, they used to go for Hajj through here. These Yarqandis used to make nice Pulao and their bakers used to make very tasty stuffed Nans! However, later on Turkey gave them asylum and most of these migrated there. After visiting Ladakh, I became more fascinated with Nubra valley and was keen to visit it. However, due to my pre-occupation with developing tourism infrastructure in the open area of Ladakh, Nubra remained in the background. I did visit a couple of times Khardongla, the highest point on the Leh-Nubra road but did not go beyond. This visit was more out of curiosity to be on the highest motorable point in the world. Khardongla at 18,380 feet above sea level is almost 3,000 feet higher than Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe and because of this it has become a very fascinating attraction for foreign tourists especially from Europe.

During my frequent visits to Leh, I heard many stories about Nubra. It created an aura of mystery around this land for me. In one of these visits, I was introduced to son of Ghulam Rassul Galwan who had written the famous book, “Servant of the Sahibs”. The book is a master piece written in special English. Rassul Galwan used to accompany many foreigners on their travels through Nubra valley. The book which describes some of the most exciting adventures is so absorbing that one does not want to leave it till the end! I was so impressed by the book that I bought 30 copies for our Tourism library in Srinagar. My first brush with Nubra occurred in nineties and that too by air. During the tenure of Mr.Ghulam Nabi Azad as the Union Minister Civil Aviation and Tourism, the Congress MP from Ladakh, Mr.P.Namgyal convinced Indian Airlines to start a service from Delhi to Nubra via Jammu. In peak winter in the month of December, we were informed that a special flight will be going to Nubra and we were asked to be ready in Jammu to board it. On the due date we were all ready and waiting at the Jammu airport. The weather was bad. It was cloudy all over. The plane came from Delhi with the top officials of civil aviation including those from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. After half an hour’s halt we took off in very inclement weather. The pilot took the plane above clouds as there was lot of turbulence. After about 40 minutes of flying we were over Nubra valley. It was very windy and misty. We could see high mountains and a very bleak looking valley down below. The plane circled and then made an attempt to land at Thoise, the defence airport in the Nubra valley. The pilot had to abort the landing approach due to high winds. It must have been heavily snowing as we saw mist all around. He made another pass after circling for sometime but had to again abort the attempt due to gusts of wind. Ultimately he gave up and announced that we were flying back to Jammu. So we missed Nubra and probably had two hours of flying in the worst imaginable weather! We were dropped back in Jammu and thus ended the test flight. No more attempts were made and the service to Nubra never started. However, some time later Jet Airways started a direct service from Delhi to Thoise for the defence personnel serving in Siachin area.

The failure to reach Nubra by air made me more curious about this land and next summer I decided to visit the place. It was also necessary to inspect a number of paying guest houses for which we had sanctioned the incentives under Tourism Incentive Rules. Thus, I took along Urgain Londup, the Deputy Director Tourism, Leh, and started on my maiden journey to Nubra. I was very much excited and after crossing Khardongla observed the landscape keenly. The Nubra and Shyok valleys are quite wide. These are dotted with a number of villages. The road going down was rough for some distance and then eased out. The moving glacier which used to be on the other side had virtually disappeared and there was a steel bridge over it. As we descended further, it became warmer compared to Leh. The first village we encounter is Khardong. After going along the valley of Khardongla for some distance the road follows Shyok River. We stopped at Khalsar which is the first stop for vehicles moving down to Nubra valley for a cup of tea. After a drive of few kilometres we reached a flat sandy plain. Here the road bifurcates. The straight one goes to Sumoor, Tiger, Panamik, and thence to Sasoma on way to Siachin glacier. The left branch goes to Deskit, Hundar, Thoise, and finally to Turtuk. We went first to Deskit Gompa on top of a hill.

The Lamas there had been waiting for us. The head Lama offered us a cup of tea. They requested for some assistance for their water supply. A Lama accompanied me to show their water point. It was deep down in a ravine on the right side of the monastery. They had put up a steel stair case of about 60 feet or so to fetch water in jerry cans. It appeared a hazardous enterprise and especially in winter it must have been an ordeal. I asked the Hakim Showkat Ali, the Executive Engineer dealing with Water Supply to frame an estimate. He worked out the total cost around 4 to 5 lakhs. It would include the pump, a generator, water tank and all the piping. The same was installed after getting requisite approvals. I visited the monastery again after a couple of years. The lamas were happy as they had got immense relief and the system was working efficiently. I hope it is still working? From the Monastery we drove to Sumoor and then to Tiger where Urgain’s brother had constructed a hotel called the Yarab Tso. We spent the night there. Next day we planned to visit the hot springs at Panamik and the Sansthaling Monastery which was a couple of kilometres away. The head lama of the monastery had invited us for tea.

(To be continued)